École internationale de Montréal


École internationale de Montréal is a small French high school located in Westmount, Quebec. It is a part of the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal.

About the school

Most people use the acronym ÉIM or ÉIMS when referring to the school. Its principal is Julie Duchesne. The school is situated near the Westmount Public Library. The school was opened in 1988 and is an International Baccalaureate school. The school uniform consists of a choice between red, white or grey polos and between a marine-black vest or jacket. Students were free to wear anything non offensive and not too short on the bottom, but since fall 2016, students are imposed to wear marine or black unicolored clothing on the bottom.
Even though the high school is public, it has an admission exam that sixth graders do in October each year. Usually, the school admits 120 students per year, but those who studied in École internationale de Montréal have priority to be admitted to EIMS without any admission exams. The number of students from École internationale de Montréal who choose the school varies from 40-60 per year, thus leaving only 60-80 places for students from other schools. The number of students taking the admission tests varies from 600-1000, making the acceptance rate vary from 6%-13%.
In 2015, the school ranked 7th within all of Quebec's high schools, making it the 2nd best public high school in Quebec and 1st in Montreal.
In 2016, the school ranked 3rd within all of Quebec's high schools, making it the best public high school in Quebec and Montreal.

School life of a student

Usual schedule

The school usually opens its doors at 7:55, classes begin at 8:15 and end at 15:10. A school day for the students is divided into 5 periods of 75 minutes:
The school also offers after school activities such as: guitar classes, improvisation, jewelry making, etc.

Homework and projects

Homework and projects are often given by teachers and the students are expected to give them in at the due date. Projects are often related to the IB Program and students are supposed to do the projects while respecting the presentation code presented in the "How to Present a Written Work Guide" and developing their profiles from the IB Learner Profile.

Evaluation

The students are often assessed throughout the school year both in the Ministry of Education way and the IB way. At the end of each semester there are several examination days when classes do not take place and students come to school only when sitting examinations. In May there are also two fixed examination days for provincial exams from the Ministry of Education.

Promotions

At the end of the year, students get promoted to the next year based on their results from the examinations.
For different grades, different achievements are imposed:
Students at EIMS graduate with up to 3 diplomas.
During the school year, students have many activities too.

Big Show (Grand Spectacle)

The students audition for the year-end show called Big Show around October and the show is often on the second Friday of May in École St-Henri's auditorium. The Sec.5 are the ones who organize the audition and sell the tickets.

Christmas activities

Christmas Activities is usually the last day before Christmas vacations, students choose activities to do at school, there are usually karaoke, board games, gingerbread house making, dance, video games and more.

Cultural Week

Cultural Week is usually a week during February where students taste food from all over the world. There are also shows and students can learn different cultural arts.

Dances

Throughout the year, many dances are held in the gymnasium of the school on Friday nights, there are many theme for the dance such as Christmas Dance, Valentine's Day Dance, Spring Dance, End of Year Dance, etc.

End-of-the-year party

The school often rents a field where students play soccer, frisbee, inflatable attractions, water dunk tank and eat hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, cookies and popsicles.

Green Day (Journée Verte)

Green Day is often in the beginning of June, there is also no class on that day and students go on trips to La Ronde, cycling roads, aerial forest courses, archery fields, and more.

Sports Week

Sports Week is usually in the end of the year. Classes compete with each other in sports such as soccer, track and field, flag football, ping pong, and more. The winning classes get pizzas and churros.

Thematic Days

Thematic Days are days where students are allowed to not wear the uniforms if they match up with the theme. Often, there are other activities on these days too.
Some examples of the themes are:
Week of French is usually a week in March where classes compete with each other and the teachers on knowledge in French grammar, vocabulary, songs and poetry. The winning classes get pizzas and churros.

White Day (Journée Blanche)

White Day is often in the end of February, there is no class on that day and students go on trips with the school to go ski, ice skating, watch movies and more.. It was also cancelled on the school year of 2017-2018.

School trips

The school often organize trips to take the students outside of Montreal too.
For example, Sec.3 students usually go to Tadoussac, Sec.4 students to New York City and Sec.5 students to Chicago. The Sec.1 and Sec.2 also had a trip once to Lac-Mégantic.
During summer, the school also organizes a trip to Italy for all the students. For summer 2016, the destination changed to Paris and Rome.

Teams

EIMS has several sport teams, such as a soccer team, a flag football team, a badminton team; it used to have a basketball team and a cheerleading team. The school also has its own improvisation team.

Classes offered

Mandatory classes

The school offers these following mandatory classes: